Sunday, December 6, 2015

The NRA: The Myth of the Money Monster

Ever try to persuade a friend to take action on gun control? Far too often, you'll hear
that all is lost, and that our Voldemort, doing business as the National Rifle
Association, rules the world with insurmountable mountains of cash and power. Folks offer the usual litany of excuses for their apathy:

Letters < Money
(Sadly)

If there is no check they
will ignore you

If we didn't get action
after Newtown we never will

These quotes are real,
from my online hustings, and one of them comes from a leader in the progressive
online community.

The NRA is indeed a
wealthy and established lobby nationally, but before our grassroots
unilaterally disarm we might want to take a hard, iconoclastic look at the
facts.

Consider Barney Frank. Representative Frank’s District encompassed a great deal
of white, working class turf. For much of his career, over 50% of his
constituents supported gun rights. Frank supported gun control, and he nevertheless
managed to stay in office for over 30 years.

In his biography, Frank, he
writes: I have never seen an NRA public
demonstration. They do not have marches…liberals who try to comfort themselves with
the notion that NRA wins legislative battles because of their vast campaign
contributions are engaged in self-deception and self-justification. The NRA
wins at the ballot box, not in the streets and not by the checkbook…They urge
all of their adherents to get on the voting rolls. They are diligent to the
point of obsession in making sure that elected officials hear from everyone in their
constituencies who oppose any limits on guns, especially when a relevant
measure is being considered, and they then do an extraordinary job of informing
their supporters of how those officials cast their votes.

Let’s now look at the NRA’s
money. Tracking political money is always a bit of a headache, but data
compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics helps untangle the thicket of
campaign finance reports. The NRA is a hydra-headed beast, and it is not the
only group spending money to keep us awash in firearms. The major players are
as follows:

*The NRA (C4): This is
the group that takes individual donations and issues the membership cards. Ask
your evil uncle what’s in his wallet and he’ll show one to you. The NRA runs a
Political Action Committee (PAC), the NRA Political Victory Fund, which pours
money into federal Congressional races.

*The NRA Civil Rights
Defense Fund (C3): The lawyers. These folks provide pro bono work on litigation
that might, eventually, shape the federal courts' interpretation of gun laws
and gun regulation. At any given time, these folks are assisting in legal cases
in upwards of 30 states.

*The NRA Institute for Legislative Action:
Rather like the conservative ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council),
this group keeps an eye on state laws. This is where the lobbyists live.

*The NRA Foundation: This
is a non profit 501(C)(3) that gives money to a host of sportsmen
organizations, and groups as diverse as the 4H and the Boy Scouts. They
encourage the recreational use of firearms.

*Other pro-gun groups not
affiliated with the NRA: The National Association for Gun Rights, Safari Club
International, Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, Gun
Owners of America, Dallas Safari Club, the Boone and Crockett Club, and the
National Shooting Sports Foundation.

Now, let’s look at the NRA’s opponents:

*Americans for
Responsible Solutions: ARS is a Political Action Committee (PAC) founded by
former Representative Gabby Giffords after she survived an assassination attempt
in a Tucson parking lot.

*Independence, USA: A PAC
founded by former New York City Mayor, Michel Bloomberg.

*Everytown for Gun
Safety: Another Bloomberg group that focuses on legislation, often at the city
or state level.

*Brady Campaign to
Prevent Gun Violence: A group founded after the assassination attempt on
President Reagan.

*Other gun control
groups: These include Sandy Hook Promise, the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence,
and Americans for the Protection of Children.

THE BOTTOM LINE:

Political money comes in
three flavors.

Independent
Expenditure Campaigns: This is money spent for or against a candidate
by an outside organization. The organization can knock on doors, make phone
calls, send mail and run television or other media ads for or against a
candidate. The outside group may not, however, coordinate directly with the actual
campaign. If you see an ad on television
that ends with “sponsored by the NRA” or “paid for by the Brady Campaign”, it’s
part of an Independent Expenditure.

Direct
Contribution: These funds are in the
form of direct contributions to candidate’s campaign war chests—the NRA writing
a check to Mitch McConnell’s campaign, for example.

So, in 2014, pro gun
groups spent $39.9 million in campaigns and lobbying while gun control groups
spent $15.3 million. The gun control groups, while outspent well over two to
one, are gradually closing the spending gap over time.

For comparison, let us now look at spending by top environmental organizations.
Next Gen Climate Change is a San Francisco based group founded by liberal
billionaire Tom Steyer. The League of Conservation Voters is best known for its
scorecard, which grades members of Congress on their environmental voting
records. The Sierra Club is one of the nation’s oldest environmental advocates.
These groups aren’t the only outside organizations spending on federal
elections for environmental advocacy, but they are three of the largest.

2014
Spending: Leading Environmental Groups

Group Type

Spending Type

2014 Total

Next Gen Climate
Change

Independent Campaign

$19.5 million

League of Conservation
Voters

Independent Campaign

$19.1 million

Sierra Club

Independent Campaign

$1.6 million

Next Gen Climate
Change

Direct Contribution

$0

League of Conservation
Voters

Direct Contribution

$4.9 million

Sierra Club

Direct Contribution

$4.3 million

Compare the spending to
just a few leading environmental groups to that of all the pro-gun groups:

2014 Spending: Guns
Versus Greens

Group Type

Spending Type

2014 Total

Pro Gun

Independent Campaign

$28.6 million

Pro Environment

Independent Campaign

$40.2 million

Pro Gun

Direct Contribution

$2.1 million

Pro Environment

Direct Contribution

$9.2 million

So, while gun groups
threw $30.7 million at Congressional candidates, the top few environmental
groups spent $50.1 million. So, if money is all that matters, why isn’t
Congress teeming with environmentalists eager to pass tough climate change
legislation?
Answer: Money doesn’t matter as much in the real world as it does in the
popular imagination. Barney Frank is right.

This becomes clearer when looking at this money in a larger perspective. Americans
spent more money in the 2014 midterm election than the total spent in the 2004
Presidential Election, a whopping $3.7 billion(that’s just on campaigns, not on
lobbying). So, while gun money seems huge as an isolated figure, the
total pro gun expenditures on Independent Campaigns and Direct Contributions comprised
roughly 8 tenths of 1 percent of total campaign spending in 2014!

The NRA wins and we lose
because they know how to lobby. The NRA wins and we lose because they know how
to engage their members. The NRA wins and we lose because NRA members never say
things like:

Letters
< Money (Sadly)

If there is no check they
will ignore you

If we didn't get action
after Newtown we never will

So, what can YOU do?

Set up a VISIT with your Senators and Representatives if they
oppose reasonable gun control legislation. They see NRA members regularly, but they seldom see us. Round up your friends and go as a group.

Help close the spending gap
between the NRA and the gun control groups. Make a donation. Everytown for Gun
Safety is doing excellent work, passing local gun control legislation that has
legs. Americans For Responsible Solutions is a savvy PAC, that helps ameliorate
NRA money in individual races.NRA fills its coffers with contributions from
working and middle class Americans. We could out-fundraise them easily, if we would
only bother to try.

Share
this blog link with your naysayer friends. The NRA wins with grassroots support. We lose
without it.

Quit whimpering and gear
up for a long term fight. Nearly nine years passed between the day Rosa Parks
refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus and the passage of the
Civil Rights Act.

Call your county and
state Republican Party offices. Tell them you are an independent thinker and
you focus on candidate qualifications when casting your vote, but you will not
vote for candidates who are in bed with the NRA.

Every time you see a
post on Facebook supporting gun control, tell them to take REAL action. Venting
steam on Facebook is slactivism. Its sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Deal with online trolls
effectively. Don’t argue with them, just
say, “Wow, you are so insane I’ve decided to give a check to a gun control
group in the amount of $25 dedicated to you.”

Round up a dozen friends
and attend the Town Meetings hosted by your Congressman. Get the name of the
staff member assigned to the gun issue. After EVERY mass shooting, call that
staffer.

By doing nothing, you meet
the Monster every day when you gaze into your bathroom mirror. In the time it takes to post a couple of angry
messages on Facebook, you could donate $25 bucks to Everytown, or pick up a
phone and leave a message for a staffer. Don’t get mad, get busy.